Down To Earth
by MariaPurt
Summary: As Karen and Bill just got married, they are forced out into the field. That will end dangerously for both of them.
1. Chapter 1

_**Yay, my second fiction for Karen/Bill.**__** I must warn you, I'm not yet writing AU fics for them – just a series of the missing scenes/situations… This one takes place between Day 5 and Day 6, and it's gonna have at least 5 chapters. My first fic was 'Make Me Scream' (really hope you liked it), and althou this one ain't a sequel or anything, all my BK fictions will eventually show you the whole picture (that, if I have enough time, patience and inspiration to write down all of my ideas). **_

_**Please-please-please, reviews are highly needed**__**!!! **_

_**I don't own 24, nor do I own the characters!**_

_**Spoilers for season 5. ONLY.**_

***

As the lights in the room went on, and the darkness was no longer the only object to be seen, Karen found herself surrounded by the armed men. There had to be seven of them, she knew, now watching everyone, moving her eyes from one to another. Three men held their guns aiming at Bill who was kneeled on the floor with his hands tied behind his back.

The three more, Karen saw now, were ready to shoot her, standing far enough from each other, not giving her a smallest chance of shooting them before they'd kill her. She squeezed the gun in her arms, and slowly moved it to one of the Bill's potential killers.

What Karen didn't see right now, was the seventh man. She knew he had to be there, and has already searched almost the whole room by now, but there was still no sign of his presence.

"Do you really think it's going to help you?" Karen heard a male voice coming from behind her back. It was one of the men aiming their guns at her, speaking. She knew, he was right. She hadn't had a gun in her arms for the last decade, in fact before today she didn't think she ever would. Her hands were shaky, just a little, but it could be fatal for someone with a gun.

"What do you want?" Karen asked, her voice cold and distant, her heart nearly jumping out of her chest. They can kill her now, any moment. And what is even worse, they can kill Bill. She knew that watching her die would mean the end for him, as well as watching him die would break her heart. Still, she didn't lower her gun, not an inch. If these bastards were going to kill them, she wanted to take them with her.

"As a matter of fact," the voice spoke again. "I have already gained what I want. But you know, after what you've done to me today…"

Karen shivered as the memories hit her mind. She knew exactly what this man was up to. Just several hours ago, Karen shot to death a woman who appeared to be this man's wife. It was a self defense, she reminded herself, but none of this mattered.

"So now you're going to kill my husband and make me watch it," Karen finally said. It wasn't a question, she knew it was the truth. "You're going to kill my husband" she repeated herself as if not yet believing this was happening for real.

"Not exactly," the man responded. "Because _you_ are going to kill him."

His last statement nearly made Karen jump. The man however continued:

"You've probably met Andrew," he pointed his head at the balcony about 10 feel above the floor. There, behind what Karen believed to be the bullet proof glass, the 7th man stood. He was holding a laptop, and nodded as soon as everyone in the room turned to face him. "Andrew here is what you call a genius. He managed to hack into the Pentagon system, and now is targeting one of their nuclear bombs…"

"No, you can't," Karen spoke in disbelief. She could feel the sweat on her face; she could sense the blood running down from her bullet wound in the stomach. The light-blue blouse she was wearing now turned to be half red, and Karen knew there was a lot of her blood on the floor – it wouldn't be too long before she collapsed of the blood loss. "This is your country," she whispered. "Your home. I regret I had to shoot Caroline, but…"

"This is no longer my country. They took everything from me, my daughter, my job, my wife… I served them for 20 years, and they simply left my daughter for the maniac to toy her…" he cut her off. "But it's still yours. And unless you want one of the biggest cities of US go up in smoke, you will shoot Bill Buchanan. Now. And the surveillance cameras will exactly record you committing a murder of a high ranking officer."

Then it hit her: that's why all the men were standing so far from both Bill and her – they were making sure the cameras wouldn't have them on the tape.

"Now, move your gun to the right. If your aiming is accurate, you'll be able to save your husband a lot of pain by killing him with the first shot."

Karen didn't move. It was Bill there, looking at her, blood dried on his face. He was silent. She remembered their first breakfast, Bill boyishly smiling and making sure she'd laugh all the time. She remembered their first night together – they had a dinner at his place, and when she went to her car to go home, the car wouldn't move. It was something wrong with the engine, she was told later on, but then, as the rain showered her from head to toe, and she returned to his house, all shaking and freezing, he'd take off her wet pullover and warm her with his body. Then, after she'd stop shaking, they'd move to his bedroom: no words were said, as none were needed. They'd make love, and it would be the first time Karen relaxed for the past months. She remembered their wedding, Bill's happy face and her own nervousness… she couldn't believe she was that happy…

"You know that he won't make it out alive, don't you? Either you kill him and save your damn country, or I'll kill him and then blow up the city with a nuclear bomb."

"You don't want him dead," Karen said, her voice still cold, her vision thou getting blurry.

"No," the man agreed. "But I want you to pay for my wife's murder. You'll spend the rest of your life in the federal prison, that if you don't get the injection for killing the CIA agent on duty. And you will always know it was Caroline you really killed. Now, shoot!" he shouted.

Karen closed her eyes as the tears made them hurt. The next thing she heard was a gunshot. When she opened her eyes, she saw Bill falling down to the ground…

**TO BE CONTINUED…**


	2. Chapter 2

I lost my inspiration, totally... so i'm glad i actually wrote the ending for this thing at the same time i wrote the beginning - this way, you'll know what it was all about. It was supposed to have 4 more chapters in between - telling what happened before this, and what brought Karen and Bill to such a disaster ;D Wasn't meant to happen, thou.

"_You don't want him dead," Karen said, her voice still cold, her vision thou getting blurry. _

"_No," the man agreed. "But I want you to pay for my wife's murder. You'll spend the rest of your life in the federal prison, that if you don't get the injection for killing the CIA agent on duty. And you will always know it was Caroline you really killed. Now, shoot!" he shouted. _

_Karen closed her eyes as the tears made them hurt. The next thing she heard was a gunshot. When she opened her eyes, she saw Bill falling down to the ground…_

"You son of a bitch…" Bill hissed with pain, rolling on the floor as the blood poured from his leg.

Karen took a look at her gun, still not sure what has just happened. Did she fire? Did someone among the shooters? The answer came from the man as he stepped closer to her, pressing a warm barrel of his gun to her wet cheek:

"I can keep on doing it, again and again, and Andrew will make it all look like there were just two of you here," he grinned, moving his gun down her cheek, across the neck and finally resting it on her shoulder. "Now, take your aim and shoot, miss Hayes".

She was still holding her gun in a ready-to-shoot position. She took a deep breath before speaking:

"Don't…" as fast as she could, she moved her gun to herself, wishing her hands wouldn't betray her. It was breaking her heart, and she knew it would break Bill's, but as there was no way that these people would not blow up that bomb, she…

Another gunshot.

The grieving man was so much faster than she was – he caught her hand carrying the gun, and as she tried to fire at her own head, he pushed it. And so she missed the target. Karen tried fighting him to get her weapon back, but the wound hurt like hell, and she wasn't even half as strong as the man was. He took her gun, and stepped back.

"Congratulations, Mr Buchanan, it seems like your wife values your life far more than her own," he laughed. "Not that it actually makes any difference… On your knees!" he yelled back at Karen who seemed to be barely standing on her feet. She lowered her head:

"I'm sorry, Bill," she said, getting down to the floor. "I love you," at that point she wasn't anything of an agent. Bill couldn't see the Homeland Security Director. He couldn't see the powerful woman. He couldn't see anything but his wife, just a desperate woman, loving and scared.

As her knees reached the floor, Karen lost her balance and nearly fell.

And as now the two directors of the high security level organizations were kneeled on the floor, several feet away from each other, being aimed by six shooters, they no longer seemed to care about anything in the world. They watched each other's eyes, none of them daring to break the eye contact, not even to breath…

"Andrew, our status?" the man shouted upwards.

"Will be set in a minute," the response came back.

"Too bad you wouldn't prevent the deaths of 10 millions of American citizens, miss Hayes," he choked. "Not even your own… It will all look like you two made that explosion happen, and my men didn't have a chance to stop you before that, but had to shoot you afterwards," he smiled, the insane face of a man who's got nothing to loose or to live for. "You lost, bit…"

He didn't finish the phrase as the gunfire from somewhere behind knocked him off his feet. Before his vision went black, he saw his men being shot to death.

"… bitch…" he finished his sentence, and dropped his head to the floor.

"What took you so long?" Bill whispered with relief, as the CTU agent uncuffed his arms.

"I'm… sorry, sir, they messed up your tracking devices, and it took Chloe quite some time to figure out what was wrong" the agent answered, as Bill slowly moved towards Karen who was now strapped to a gurney.

"Mr. Buchanan, you're bleeding" he heard the other agent reaching him. He turned around to see a doctor from the CTU. "Let me see it."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bill snapped, looking back at Karen who was being moved out of the building. She was slightly moaning, her eyes closed. Two men were taking care of her.

"We knew it would be a blood bath, sir" Chloe came closer only to yell at someone upwards: "Can't you just bring me his laptop?"

"Oh god…" Bill's eyes widened. "The bomb!.."

"Is taken care of," Chloe finished for him. "You should really get in the van and let the doctor check your wound, sir," she paused looking at him, then added "Your wife is in that van, you know. She'll soon be transferred to the Homeland Security…" she didn't have to finish as Bill was already gone towards the van. "Okay, listen up, everybody" Chloe said out loud. "I want every piece of equipment gathered into our boxes and moved to CTU. Cameras, lights, wires… everything," she took a deep breath and added as silently as nobody could hear "we better do it before Homeland Security shows up…" with that she walked upstairs to check if everything was done.

In about 20 minutes the chopper brought Bill and Karen to CTU quarters. His leg was bandaged, and the painkillers made him feel much better. He watched the medical personnel taking care of Karen who lost a lot of blood, but was supposed to be ok. At least, that was what the doctor told him. The bullet came thru, and none of the life supporting organs was injured.

"You look good," were the first words she said as Bill came into her room.

"You really should rest, sweetheart," he smiled, sitting on the edge of her bed. "Are you feeling okay?" he looked concerned.

"As much as a person stuck in a bed can," she rolled her head a little. "They gave me something for the pain… I asked them not to, I wanted to stay awake…" her voice was getting weaker. "But it looks like I've no authority over your people."

"I love you too," he kissed her forehead.

"What?" Karen asked forcing herself to stay with him.

"Back there, you said you loved me… I love you to. Now, rest. Your agency is sending a team to pick you up and move to Homeland Security facility in a couple hours, once you're stable. They don't seem to trust CTU for your wellbeing," he smiled bitterly.

"It's not about CTU, Bill," she choked. "They don't trust me."

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm not supposed to be in the field. I've no field training. What if a president would want to play a hero? Nobody would let him do that. I'm not supposed…" she couldn't finish her phrase getting too sleepy.

In a week Karen was back home. She was still highly suggested to stay in a bed, and there was a schedule of the upcoming check ups on her table, but she was home. Bill would bring her the breakfast, and then spend half an hour talking her to eat it. Then he'd read a book and lay next to her in a bed. She was a fighter, getting better every day. She'd soon move around the house, cleaning off the dust and arguing with Bill once he'd not let her wash the dishes.

"I'm not a baby," she'd say playfully.

"Oh, but you are…" her husband would smile at her.

She'd smile back, push him a little and move around the kitchen to check what else she could do to help.

"It's good to be like this," she told him one morning, her head resting on his chest, her arm caressing his hair.

"Like what?" he wished he could have a look at her eyes to figure out what she was up to.

"Like a normal family. You know, down to earth…" she kissed him on the lips.

In three days their heaven on earth was supposed to be coming to its end: President Wayne Palmer called personally and asked Karen to join his side as the National Security Advisor. In Washington. He asked her for a personal favor, and she fought herself to ignore the offer. It was Bill who forced her into accepting it thou. He'd promised her to phone every evening, and fly to DC on weekends. So once she was fully recovered, she packed her stuff and Bill took her to the airport.

They stood there, watching each other closely, their eyes getting wet. Then without any words, they kissed and Karen walked towards the registration: that was what they wanted their goodbye to be - tearless. They'll talk to each other in just 20 hours, Karen was telling herself as she was watching the airport disappear under the plane. Some people just couldn't live on earth, she smiled to herself. Some, she thought, were meant to fight for their happiness. With that, she fell asleep, dreaming of Bill holding her in his arms and whispering those little sweet things, just like he used to when they honeymooned.

THE END


End file.
